(Attributed to) / (Ba’al HaBeHa’G). Halachoth Gedoloth [Gaonic Rabbinic Code].

KAYARA, SHIMON

Adelkind for Giustiniani

Venice

1548

Vinograd, Venice 333.

In the introduction, there is an enumeration of the negative and positive commandments. Whereas Maimonides' Sepher HaMitzvoth veered away from such a reckoning, Nachmanides in his glosses to the work of Maimonides, upheld the viewpoint of the Halachoth Gedoloth. The authorship and date of the Halachoth Gedoloth have been the subject of much study and have given rise to conflicting views. Generally speaking, medieval Aschkenazic authorities tended to the view that the author of the work was R. Yehudai Gaon, while their Sephardic counterparts believed the author was R. Shimon Kayara. Modern scholarship inveighs the latter view. See EJ, Vol. VII, cols. 1167-70 (illustrated).